The Next Generation

I scrapped! WooHoo! I did this at the on Bank Holiday Monday for the latest UKS weekly challenge. 6x4 photos, history (I went for future history) and use a punch - which I have!

Another Weekly Challenge

Still having issues creating straight photos, no matter how hard I line up the camera!

The only summer themed papers I had were the thin substandard AC ones, so I used them despite being a paper snob! They aren't so bad as long as you layer them up and make the page heavier. I even managed to throw in a little October Afternoon and Echo Park, so not all bad!



The criteria this week are as follows:

5 points for including blue - plenty of that!
10 points for Summer themed photo - taken at Summer School in 2009, our last day and a visit to Rumbling Kern.
5 points for journalling - check
10 points for a home made embellishment - I made a flower / circular thingy, not entirely sure what to call it!

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Springtime

This week at Creative Craft World the Scrap Map Saturday theme is "spring / seasons".

Thought at first it might be a problem as I didn't seem to have many pictures from Spring (or autumn, or winter...), certainly not eight of them! I don't have photo printing capabilities at home, I always send them out to be printed, so my photos are always sized at whatever options I'm allowed on Photobox.

Then it occurred to me that, obviously, sketches are jumping off points, they're for kick starting your mojo and sending it off to scrap. My mojo came up with this:

{Forde Abbey in Dorset, Easter 2009}

I cut one photo into six pieces, displaced them a little and filled the gaps with daisies and my journalling. Also made my own background with Distress Inks (mustard seed, peeled paint & faded jeans) and a Maya Road butterfly sheer sheet.

Once I'd done that I didn't want to cover up my background any more than I had to, so I added a teeny title.

Then I had to go away and play with the Sheer Sheet as I'd not used it before and it's FUN!

Jan Week 5 - Belles

I promise I did this weekly challenge in time! I just put it somewhere safe for the GA to dry - and forgot all about it. Still, that's better than my usual trick of dumping something on top of wet GA and spreading it everywhere.


From the huge choice of options I went for a theme of friends, and the techniques of doodling, hand written journalling, distress ink and one stamp. Sketch used.

Pictures are Susi and Maria, fellow Bijoux Belles, on our visit to London and The Eye. Maria is tucking into a Screme Egg - the halloween version of the Easter treat.

Paper Snob?

I did these two layouts last month when I thought I'd see if I really was a Paper Snob! I made a layout using some cheap American Crafts products that I bought from the home store round the corner. Now, don't get me wrong, I do like a lot of what AC does, enjoy their Remarks stickers, cardstock, Thickers, Flair, blooms, buttons etc. On the other hand, I tend to not like their papers. Maybe it's the design, or the colours.

Until I bought this cheap kit I hadn't realised that AC seem to have two types of paper. Thicker, double-sided papers and much thinner single-sided papers. They also must do a slightly inferior type of alpha as well. I made this first layout mainly using the bits that came in the kit. There were some odd photo matts in bizarre shiny card, as well as the thin papers, and non-sticky alphas. I had to re-glue the title down twice because it wouldn't stick.

There was nothing wrong with the Flair or Remarks, but in the end, I wasn't happy with this layout. So I thought I would scraplift myself and use some papers that I love with all my Paper Snobby Heart - October Afternoon's Thrift Shop - and see if what I came up with was something I preferred.


To be honest. I'm not entirely sure which one I prefer. I think I like them both. I suspect I chose the wrong subject matter for the second one. When I saw that old London map paper, I couldn't wait to use it, but the only pictures I had of London were these few of Alex, which I took at the British Musuem (circled on the paper!) on my iPhone.

Of course, as it turns out, the second layout uses AC Thickers in both the title and in some of the chipboard embellishments!

I think I still am a Paper Snob, I do prefer working with thicker, double sided papers with gorgeous prints, but I know I can use the other sort as well.

Layouts for No Reason

I do keep making layouts for challenges and never seem to make them just for myself. The Paperclipping Roundtable seems to think that this can sometimes be bad for your personal creativity, so I've made up a few that aren't sketch based. I'm also loving 8.5 x 11 as a size at the moment, not that I have any albums of this size, I just like the rectangularliness of it.

This first one is Melman at Risby Barns in April. John took the shot of me standing by this giraffe print, Puppet on hand, looking silly. Not one person looked as us and the cafe was packed. Oh well, so much for being embarrassed.


I bought a piece of Three Bugs paper on purpose as it had giraffe and lion strips on it. I've already used the Lion strips. I took some elephant pictures earlier this month, so now I have to keep hold of the elephant strips! First use of my new giraffe stamp.

This next one is another of my old pictures from the hot air ballooning days. This was taken on a trip to France, we'd landed in Farmer Lambert's field and they invited us it for coffee and a drink (it was about 10am, time for a Mirabel).


I was penpals with the girl in green for a while. The farmer kept his guns in the downstairs toilet and the fly papers were so full of flies that they were fighting to get a leg on. Good fun had by all. :)

Sketchy Thursdays 4.29

Getting at the last minute with this one, although I made it last week. Forgot all about it in my layout tidying session and filed it away. These are a couple of the pictures my father took as slides way back in my childhood and as recently had made up into digital copies so they can be printed off as 'normal' photos.


This layout proves that there was a time when I was able to run races, win them and wear leotards. Those days, however, are looong gone!

Have started using Glossy Accents more now that I'm figuring out how to use. There's a pleat in the strip across the bottom and I've GA'd the flower element and stuck it on for height. Should've taken a close up of it as it looks a lot better in real life.